Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Here, There be Dragons......

In news that is sweeping the Disney fan base by storm, it seems as through dragons are headed to New Fantasyland. On the tumblr disneydragons.tumblr.com, our dragon obsessed friend Gary (who happens to write for the Disney Parks blog as well) has been posting some pretty interesting pictures and video. These seem to suggest that the current location of New Fantasyland was once home to a dragon. Now, apparently, that dragon may be responsible for some interesting noises and fire coming from the areas around New Fantasyland.

I have to admit that, even though the suspense is killing me, I am truly enjoying this little campaign Disney has going on here. Its creative and much more fun than just posting on the blog "Bam, we have a dragon!" But I can't help but wonder just what Disney has up their sleeves with this. I'm going to share a few theories with you, and I'd love to know what you all think, too!

New Nighttime Spectacular?

The flying dragon Disney was testing in California (image property of Tammy Zaninovich)

Despite Disney's best efforts to convince us otherwise, we can believe with a reasonable amount of certainty that the dragon in question will be a version of the flying dragon Disney was testing in California a few months ago. Looking at the design, I can't imagine Disney would use this during the day. That parachute would ruin the magic in broad daylight. This leads me to believe that the dragon's place will be in a new nighttime show, possibly called Believe in Fantasy (explaining the title of the tumblr page). Disney has a press event scheduled on December 7th, the day after the grand opening of New Fantasyland, and I think its very possible that a replacement for Wishes! could be announced at this event.

One Time Event?

The other, more upsetting but perhaps also more likely possibility, is that the dragon will make a one time appearance, either at the grand opening of New Fantasyland or at the press release on the 7th. While this certainly seems possible from a budgeting standpoint (a new nighttime spectacular would be costly), I can't imagine Disney putting this much PR effort into something that very few people would actually see in person. The hype around this seems too big to be a one time thing.

Another Ride We Don't Know About?

This one is probably the least likely of the theories being discussed on a number of fan websites, but some have suggested that maybe Disney has been keeping a huge secret from everyone. Maybe the dragon in question isn't the flying creature we saw before, but part of a new experience that Disney has been able to keep a secret from all of us. It wouldn't be the first time Disney has had us fooled until the last minute (Avatar, Lucasfilms). But where would such an experience go? And, with no visible work on such construction, when would it be open?

Those are some of the theories on the possible identity and use of the mysterious dragon of New Fantasyland. What are your theories? Are you intrigued by the new campaign?